Staff

Cortney Worrall, Director of Programs

Ian Douglas, Development and Communications Associate

Emily Egginton, Program, Community, and Government Affairs Associate

Louis Kleinman, Outreach Coordinator & Alliance Partner Liaison

Big G, Trusty Boat

Roland Lewis, President and CEO
rlewis[at]waterfrontalliance.org

A lifetime New Yorker, Roland Lewis has worked in the field of community development since 1984, when he began as a program associate at the Trust for Public Land. A graduate of Columbia University, he then went on to earn a Masters of City and Regional Planning and a Juris Doctor from Rutgers University in 1988. This was followed by nine years as a partner in the law firm of Dellapa, Lewis, and Perseo, whose clients included not-for-profit corporations, civic groups, churches, cooperative corporations, and private real estate developers. Starting in 1997 Roland became the Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity - NYC. Roland led the organization for ten years, guiding it to become one of the top producers in the region and a nationally emulated model of Habitat urban success.

In the spring of 2007, Roland took the helm of the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, a newly incorporated not-for-profit dedicated to the improvement of the New York and New Jersey harbor and waterways.

In addition to his professional experience with community development, Roland has also been active with many non-profit community organizations. He served as Co-Chair of Housing First! and is now on the board of the New York Foundation.

Roland lives in Flatbush, Brooklyn with his wife and four children.
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Cortney Worrall, Director of Programs
cworrall[at]waterfrontalliance.org

As a management professional and environmental planning specialist, Cortney Worrall has worked in the water-related, environmental field for over 14 years. Cortney comes to the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance as the former director of the Coastal Marine Resource Center in Brooklyn. She began her career as an environmental specialist working in engineering consulting to bring trucking industry clients into compliance with Phase I, NPDES non-point source regulations at the state and national levels. As storm water planning and regulatory work evolved in the mid-90s to the municipal level, she designed and led public involvement programs for city and county-level watershed assessment programs in Georgia.

Cortney’s leadership was instrumental in the formation of a nonprofit watershed organization, the Appoquinimink River Association, through her work as a consultant to the State of Delaware’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. Marriage and children eventually brought her to New York City where she served on staff at the New York – New Jersey Harbor Estuary Program and was the lead staff member working with Carter Craft on the formation of the HEP Public Access Workgroup.

Cortney received her bachelor’s degree in environmental policy from Mount Holyoke College in 1990 and a master’s degree in public administration from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs in 2001.
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Ian Douglas, Development and Communications Associate
idouglas[at]waterfrontalliance.org

A former grant program manager for the Planning and Conservation League Foundation in Sacramento, CA, as well as a Publication Design Consultant and Graphic Designer, Ian joined MWA in April of 2009. At the PCL Foundation, Ian played a critical role in developing funding for a multi-year climate change program focused on the implementation of AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act. He also worked on major projects involving the California Environmental Quality Act and bond-funded parks and recreation grant programs.

A Colorado native, Ian received bachelor’s degrees in Biology and English from the University of Pittsburgh, as well as an MFA from Columbia University.
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Emily Egginton, Program, Community, and Government Affairs Associate
eegginton[at]waterfrontalliance.org

Emily came to MWA in November 2009 from Waterkeeper Alliance, an international clean water advocacy organization headquartered in Irvington. She served as Field Coordinator for two and a half years, working directly with the nearly 200 Waterkeeper organizations around the world on strategic planning, advocacy and fundraising. Emily facilitated new program growth, regional collaboration and worked to connect and support international grassroots advocates in their fight to protect clean water. She has also worked at the Wallerstein Collaborative for Urban Environmental Education at NYU and the Westchester County Department of Parks.

Emily received her B.A. in environmental policy from Middlebury College and completed the Middlebury Language School program in Italian. She studied abroad at the Sede in Florence, Italy and the University of Otago, New Zealand's oldest university where she took ecology, environmental economics and policy.

At Middlebury, Emily and her classmates worked with author and scholar-in-residence, Bill McKibben, to create the inception of 350.org, an international grassroots climate change campaign which recently helped coordinate over 5200 climate awareness events in 181 countries.

Emily recently completed an online course, Strategic Sustainable Development, at the Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden’s #1 school for Sustainable Development. Emily lives in New York City where she enjoys running, skiing, biking, hiking and swimming.
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Dash Henley, Office Associate
dhenley[at]waterfrontalliance.org
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Louis Kleinman, Outreach Coordinator & Alliance Partner Liaison
lkleinman[at]waterfrontalliance.org

Louis joined MWA in the spring of 2009 aiding in the coordination of City of Water Day and assumed added responsibilities as indicated. He is an environmental and preservation activist with background and training in international trade. (Please send event calendar notices to Louis for inclusion in the MWA Calendar of Events.)
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Big G, Trusty Boat
info@waterfrontalliance.org

Big G The Big G is a motor launch built for the NYPD Harbor Unit in 1968 by Turecamo Tug in Cohoes, New York. Designed by Philip Rhodes, she was christened Launch 13, and delivered as one of four police launches at that time. She was believed to be the first class with a steel hull and mostly aluminum house. She has been stationed at numerous points around the Harbor including the Willis Avenue Shop on the Harlem River and on City Island. In the 1970s she was re-christened the Malcolm Maitland, in memory of a former NYCHA Police Officer who was killed in the line of duty. After being retired by the NYPD, she was transferred to the NYC Department of Corrections and stationed at Rikers Island. As Patrol Boat 4, she may also have served at or around Hart Island.

BIG G is named for the late William Gottlieb, whose family donated the boat to the Municipal Art Society of New York (MAS). The boat is operated and maintained by the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance. BIG G is used to stage tours for the media, elected officials and other decisionmakers shaping our region’s waterfront, and for youth education programs to help introduce the next generation of stewards to our region’s bountiful waterfront assets.
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